Graduate Program Overview
Thank you for your interest in the Department of Political Science graduate program at the University of New Mexico! Our program dates back to 1969, when we began offering M.A. and Ph.D. degrees with subfield specializations in American politics, comparative politics, international relations and public policy. We subsequently added methodology to our subfield listing.
We are a department of fourteen accomplished professors who provide high quality graduate instruction about the systematic study of politics. Our primary goals are to:
- Prepare students to be informed and effective citizens, policy makers, professionals, and scholars
- Produce new knowledge on substantively and theoretically important questions about politics, and to disseminate those findings through high visibility, peer-reviewed publications
We also seek to make our department's expertise available and useful to local, state, national and international communities and governments, as well as to national and international scholarly networks.
Our faculty are nationally recognized experts in:
- Political Behavior and Election Administration
- International Human Rights and Restorative Justice
- US and Global Health Politics
- Gender, Race and Ethnic Politics
- Media Politics and Civic Engagement
- US Congressional Politics and Campaign Spending
- Political and Interstate Conflict
- Political Economy of Illicit Markets
- Latino Politics and Health Policy
- Corporate Political Spending and International Trade
- Intra-state Political Violence and Conflict Resolution
- Urban Elections and Campaigns, and Urban Policy
The Department admits a small number of well-qualified candidates to its graduate program each year. Our relatively small size (about 35 students) allows us to provide individualized graduate instruction and mentorship. Our accessible yet intensive, multi-method training approach pays dividends. Co-authoring with graduate students, for instance, is a common occurrence in our department. And our students win highly competitive dissertation-stage awards such as National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Fulbright, and Fulbright-Hays awards. Only three (much larger) departments in the country have won more such awards in the past decade. As a result, our graduates are competitive in both the academic and non-academic job markets.
Our Ph.D. graduates are typically employed as faculty at colleges and universities, including: University of Arizona, University of Missouri, Lewis University, University of Vermont, SUNY-Albany, Marquette University, Beloit College, University of South Dakota, California State University, Fresno, Roosevelt University, California State University, Northridge, Bucknell University, Truman State University, Curry College, Western Washington University, Louisiana State University, and the College of Wooster. And our M.A. students find work in a wide range of jobs in the public sector including Sandia National Laboratories, local, state and federal levels of government, and even elected office.
Feel free to explore our website for more information on the graduate program. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact our Graduate Program Director, Dr. Gabriel Sanchez at sanchezg@unm.edu.
